Thieves, credit, and our cyber identities.

   When we go online to our favorite websites these days, more often than not we log in to an account. Some accounts  are used for apparently no reason than to spam you. In return, you get funny titles and irrelevant "awards" for visiting a site or posting so often. Others are used for tracking progress, monetary transactions, or to prove you aren't a computer. One thing that holds true is we have been creating and internet identity for ourselves.

We create accounts on websites, sometimes because we have to, but mainly to establish ourselves. More often than not, people keep the same name across all their accounts (especially in gaming, we want people to know how super awesome we are at every game), whether its for a message board, Xbox  Live Account, or e-mail. We want a unique identity for ourselves, with a name we created that we aren't always connected to in real life. Our internet identities tend be an escape from our real ones. Many people, especially gamers, have internet friends that they have never met in real life. This is all fine and dandy, however, some of these accounts that we use require certain bits of information that link you back to your real life. Things like your address, middle name, credit card numbers- this is all information that we need to make sure we are doubly careful in protecting. As the user we can do so much - have unique passwords, don't share information, and generally be cautious about what websites we use.

     In this day of having an internet identity, convenience has become a blessing and curse. Just think, would you rather, A.) use your credit card from the comfort of your house to buy a game, or B.) Get off the couch, drive to the store, wait in line, buy the game, and then drive back? The lazy in us says lets go with A because its easier, and there's nothing wrong with that, at least from your end. When we are allowed the convenience of being able to use a credit card with a company over the internet, we should be able to without worry or fear. I believe it should be the companies responsibility to protect the information we give them. With an online money transaction like buying a game, your full name, billing address, and card information are transferred and stored into a company database. This is information we don't want in the wrong hands, and of recently, its has been.

     There have been many attacks against large gaming companies recently (Bioware, Sega, Sony) and this could cause some unwanted problems for a lot of us. Internet thieves have been hacking into the databases of these large companies and compromising personal info for many users in these databases. There is no telling what information has been taken and for what reason, but there is a leak. At first glance, you may not be so worried about your account. Let's say you had a PSN account that was compromised but you never used your credit card with it, no big deal right? Well, what if you used the same email address for another  account in which you did? A thief with the right know how, and your email address could potentially scam his way into your credit card number. Then it's game over man. In you are like most people and you try to make your life simple by using 1 or 2 email addresses but with all the same information, you could be in danger if even one of your accounts gets compromised.

Now, this is not an article to scare people off the internet, this is a wake up call. We have been so accustomed to the internet infusing into our lives that we might have become careless. Until recently, we have felt pretty damn secure using our credit card on the internet with big name companies and we had every right to. But now, there is an alarming amount of attacks in a short period of times and I think it's time we re-evaluate how we do business. Until cyber-security gets back under control, we might have to suck it up and drive out to the video game store for our purchases. Let's face it, they carry most of what we need, subscription cards, marketplace currency, games,and we can pay for all of that with cash if we so choose. We shouldn't be scared of having an internet identity or participating in e-commerce, we just need to be careful. Some of the companies we have had so much faith in for security have shown that they aren't infallible.The point here, is that we might want to take a look our internet identity and try to tidy up any loose ends. It could save you a huge headache.

MMMEEEEEEDDDDDDDIIIIIIIIIICCCCCCCC!!!!!

Yes that's right, that was the distressed slightly prepubescent war time cry for help for a fallen comrade. Or, what I like to call, complete victory on Battlefield Bad Company 2.

The other night my friends and I decided we were going to play some BC2, however, I am without a mic so I usually just play the medic. My job is to just run around and revive people after they have been shot, run over, blown to oblivion, etc. Its an easy job when you are without communication because all you have to do is keep others alive while they do all the work. We play a game type called Rush. One team attacks with 75 lives for the team, the other team defends with unlimited lives. Attackers have to go plant a bomb at two way points before they run out of lives. Though, when someone gets revived, it does not subtract a life from the total lives left. After both charges have been planted, two new targets pop up and the lives are reset back to 75. Well little did we know that we would be beating teams in record times for us with what happened next.

After a few rounds of thoroughly pissing off the other teams with having a competent medic around, I get this crazy idea. What if the four of us played as medics. Now let me give you a better idea of the medic class. The  medic's prime weapon is a light machine gun, usually an m60. He is also equipped defibrillators to revive fallen teammates, and he also carries a healthpack that can be thrown on the ground and will heal nearby teammates. That last bit a good tactic to prolong firefights and sometimes will give you an advantage.

In BC2, not only are you trying to meet the objectives, you also have a personal score for how well you do. Simple things like kills, assist, revives, blowing up the objectives, will give you points. With medics, you get the same amount of points for a revive as someone would a kill, and you get about half that when you heal someone. So there is potential for racking up a good score. Little did we know we would blow everyone out of the water.

So, the first round with all medics, the four of us are just goofing around getting good kick out of constantly reviving each other when one person goes down. Then we realized how effective the health packs were when four medics dropped them. We called this tactic the health bubble. This was getting interesting.

We charge the first station, plant the charge and wait. We dropped the four health packs around us and lit up anything that moved with our m60s. If someone died, I'd revive him. If I died, someone would revive me. If he died, so on and so forth. We had a nice little system. Remember, because they were revives, our lives left meter was not going down. It was as if we almost had infinite lives. Nothing could stop us. Then 4 other player who we had to contact with on our team started to join us as medics. We ended up with a majority of our team as medics running from objective to objective taking them out in record time. No one could stop us, snipers didn't have the rate of fire to take all of us out. The assault and engineers were getting leveled by our m60s. The medic ruled this day.

I could only imagine the frustration the other team met when they run  straight into a team of medics who are just as focused, if not more focused, on keeping their teammates alive than they are focused on killing tangos. So, important lesson, never underestimate the medic.

LEAKED(well sorta): FIFA 12

In the past week or so a few gameplay videos of FIFA 12 were leaked across the wide internets. Unfortunately, EA has scoured the deep interwebs to remove any videos of the gameplay they deem as infringing on copyrights. Though good news, EA has launched an official trailer.

In this trailer, they show off their new physics and collision engine to make game play feel more real. If you are familiar with the series, you probably can recall many different occasions where you were tackled and fell in a weird way, or when committing a tackle your momentum was completely screwed. It seems that EA is trying to fix all of these issues with this new engine. It looks really clean, and very similar to what I would see watching ESPN or Sky sports. Yet without alot of concrete evidence out there, it's hard to say what to really expect from the game.

One of the rumors out in the mill came directly from the leaked video. EA might be stepping up their player profile systems by allowing your unique profile to span across multiple titles. For example, the stats you attain in FIFA 12 might carry on to FIFA 13. Knowing EA sports, this model is probably not just focused on the FIFA titles, but is probably going to get implemented to Madden, NCAA Football, NHL, and NBA live. It sounds like  we will no longer have to start from square one every time we buy the next year's title. Imagine if squads, team tactics, formations, and player experience could transfer from one game to the next. Manager mode won't seem so daunting if you can continue each year with updated graphics, players, and physics.

I'll keep my eyes and ears open. Until then, I'm preparing for the UEFA Champions League Final on saturday. Let's go Manchester United!

COOL NEWS: Minecraftcon2011 in Vegas?

     In a recent blog post on The Word of Notch, "Notch", the creator of the indie game sensation Minecraft, posted his thoughts and a poll on where Minecraftcon 2011 should be held and some of the things we could expect. For those of you unfamiliar with Minecraft, get familiar. It's a game all about exploring, building, and surviving. Its been quite a craze recently in the gaming world. It has sold an incredulous amount of copies of the game and it hasn't been fully released yet.

     Back to the news...not much has been set in stone, but it seems like the convention will be in Vegas which would hopefully mean that this will be an actual convention versus a casual gathering. In August of last year, Notch met up with some of his faithful players in a very casual setting that they dubbed  "Minecraftcon 2010" but that is a really misleading name. This year for 2011 they plan to make it an actual convention. Funny enough they plan to hold this the same day as Bethesda's "Skyrim" release, that may be a conflicting day for many gamers. Minecraft or Skyrim....Minecraft of Skyrim....blocks vs dragons? Remember, nothing is set in stone, Notch is just feeling out the waters.

   They have just announced a few items that we could expect:

$90 for tickets (does not include travel or hotel)
Live Launch of the full game- That alone will make me go. This is a one time opportunity to see history made
Competitions- costume comptetion(no con would be complete without one), speed building
Food and Parties - 'nuff said
Q & A sessions - lets hope the questions stay intelligent

Now what I'd like to see:

Live Action Minecraft - lets see who really is good at architecture, or who can really tame a wolf
Multiplayer World for the length of the convention - what would happen if every person at the con had access to the same world for the length of the convention, I think we could see some cool stuff come from that.
Plush Creepers for sale - I totally want  one of these cuddly walking tnt bombs.

If I have the chance I'm going to go. Will you go? What do you want to see? Leave a comment and let me know.

COOL NEWS: Playstation Portable Remaster Series

Hey guys and gals, 

In the first post of my series Cool News, we are going to take a look at some cool stuff going on at Sony. 

Sony revealed(Source Here) that they are going to be re-mastering some of the classic PSP games to be played on the  PS3. They offer a "rich and immersive game experience" with the remastered titles offering some new details like SIXAXIS and DualShock3 support, new add-on content, possible stereoscopic 3D, and utilization of the PSP save system so you can import your original PSP file to the PS3 and continue playing on the remastered version. This feature is pretty damn cool. I've always wanted to be able to play my handheld titles on the big screen when I'm stationary and not on the go. It's just more convenient when you are in the comfort of your home.

The other fun feature being added is an ad-hoc psp party mode for the PS3. In essence, they are laying down the infrastructure to allow people to use their PS3 to connect and play with players on the PSP. Again, very cool feature. Imagine being able to continue to game with your friends no matter where you are. If you are out, take the PSP, but when you are home you can just fire up the PS3 and enjoy the HD output.

From a game designers standpoint, this is a giant leap in a new direction for US gaming. Japan has always had great success with building a handheld culture, but with Sony's steps forward, we might be able to create some games to draw people into the handheld realm. Imagine playing an RPG and the only way to unlock certain items is to go questing with your PSP, or being able to grind out some levels on the train to work and then update your player when you get home. Especially with Sony's recent focus on Augmented Reality(CLICK ME), I think we will see some really cool stuff coming out of the Sony camp.

-Crockett

The end is nigh...

Hey guys,

It has come to my attention that today is the rapture/end of times/apocalypse/Armageddon/hell freezing over/democrats and republicans agreeing/Jesus returning as a small asian woman,so with that in mind I don't know whether I should bid you all a fond adieu or invite you over to share one last debaucherous evening of passion, lust, and greed. It should be a fun day. 

Now if this is just another elaborate hoax like the civil war or the industrial revolution, I"m gonna be pissed. I want to see the heavens open, and fire reign down and scorch the earth. Or maybe some zombies, I am prepared for zombies. I bet it's going to be zombies. So in order to prepare, I'm going to go play some Left 4 Dead. Join me on XBL to prepare for the apocalypse. My gamertag is "Rococo Bang".

But before I go, what are you doing on the last day of the world? I'm going to be drunk playing xbox.

CONTRA

Just added to the site, enjoy!